Computer graphical images tend to come in many different forms. For example, in the past, only black and white bitmap displays were available and hence bitmaps having one bit per pixel were utilised. Subsequently, colored displays have become more significant and, as a result, a format comprising 8 bits per color channel of red, green and blue pixel data has become significant.
Over time, a technique of combining multiple images, each image having a transparency component, has become popular, resulting in a further opacity channel being added to pixel data. Further, output color display devices often utilise different color space mapping techniques, and hence other forms of color space representations (YUV or CYMK, for example) are also popular.
As a result of these and other developments, graphical objects utilized in the creation of computer graphic images may be presented in any of a large number of formats, making it relatively difficult for a processor or co-processor to deal with arbitrary graphical objects at relatively high speeds.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or at least ameliorate one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art.